The Walnut Restaurant & Lounge Bar — Restaurant in Brisbane City

I came here with seven mates per my recommendation after reading the reviews. We should have gone elsewhere.

We ordered three of the seafood share plates but then asked for one of them to be a meat share plate instead. 10 minutes later we were brought four share plates - three seafood and one meat. The gentlemen enjoyed the oysters whilst the meat share plate left a bit to be desired. A few slices each of ham, salami and beef, four cornichons, two pickled onions (which were tasty) and a dollop of mustard. At $30+, we were certainly expecting more than that.

When we placed our orders, we wound up with four porterhouse steaks, one Scotch fillet, one risotto, one salmon and one Barramundi. I ordered one of the porterhouse steaks and asked for bearnaise sauce instead of the standard port jus; the waitress was unsure of whether they had it and advised she would check and let me know if they did not. No news was presumed to be good news.

Unfortunately, four identical porterhouse steaks were served. I queried the dark liquid under mine and it was confirmed to be the port jus. I do not drink alcohol and therefore do not consume port jus. One can debate the alcohol content of a cooked port jus but when an order is made and it includes a request to specifically leave out the port jus, that is what is expected. The waitress said she just assumed it would be ok to leave it on rather than follow up with me as promised.

At that point, the waitress said she would have them remake my steak. When I asked what was happening with the one in front of me she replied that it would be reused for someone else. Interesting.

As this all played out, the salmon, Barramundi and risotto were brought out (each was a sizable portion) but the Scotch fillet took quite some time. So long, in fact, that when it was eventually brought out I actually thought it was my make-up steak.

When the first four porterhouse steaks came, I could not help but comment on how large they were and how good they looked. My replacement paled in comparison, so much so that I advised the waitress of its sad state and asked it to be replaced and she agreed. At least ten minutes passed (my mates were almost done their food) and then the manager came out to enquire as to my troubles thus far. I shared the story and she asked whether I specifically said I did not want jus - my reply yielded an apology on behalf of the waitress. She then let me know that the steaks are weighed and looks can be deceiving, not unlike comparing the size of apples. Our discussion concluded with her saying it would take 15-20 minutes for the kitchen to make me another steak as my order was behind all of the tables that were being seated. When I queried that length of time she said I could order something that cooks faster instead. I also confirmed that, counter to what the waitress advised, no cooking had commenced as the kitchen was waiting on the manager to advise the move. I elected to follow the old adage, "If at first the restaurant doesn't succeed, request, request again."

The steak arrived 15 minutes later and was average at best. I confirm it was a medium rare steak with a limited amount of fat. It was what it was advertised to be.

A couple additional notes:

*One guy ordered a drink from one waitress, followed up on that order 5 minutes later with another waitress and then asked the first waitress what the status of the drink was a further 10 minutes later. It came immediately after the third query.

*At the end of the evening, we were unable to conclude the ordeal because no attention was paid to our table after my plate was collected. I eventually had to get up and go to the bar and ask for our bill. It came a few minutes later.

I vouched for this place and really wanted the night to be a success. It could not have fallen on its face any harder than it did. I wish this establishment nothing but success in the future but will not be recommending it to anyone. Thanks...

Sadly, every time we dine here over the last couple of years, the standard continues to fall. It used to be what we would consider a near silver service experience, now it is just another restaurant. We, a party of 2 couples, went to the bar with the intent of a couple of rounds of pre-dinner drinks - we were seated at the bar and over a time frame of 10-15 mins nobody behind the bar even acknowledged our presence- sale lost approx $200. We left and went to our table - eventually was able to order 1 round of drinks that took ages to come. The young lady (Mai) who was serving us was very good but severely let down by the back end staff. Our meals, while very nice, came out ad hoc instead of altogether ("so sorry for the delay") - we had no choice but to wait. It used to be when you were seated, the wait staff would place the napkin on your lap - no more. I was getting very frustrated by the time the meal came, so i left my napkin where it was when we arrived to see what would happen. Sure enough the meal was placed on top of the folded napkin - VERY poor training. The service level is nowhere near what it was even 12 months ago. It looked like the person in charge was wandering very "officially" but not achieving a lot - i wont use the word Maître d' because if that was her role, she certainly did not deserve the title - really sad We may come back once more but it is now in the classification of "a restaurant" rather then our restaurant of choice for special occasions. PS. I realise there was a big function on at the same time as we were there, but Royal on The Park has been doing that for long enough that they should have had appropriate staffing levels...

Booked a table at the Walnut Restaurant for our final night in Brisbane and we weren't disappointed.

Is the Walnut a shiny super hip OTT trendy looking joint? No, it's not but it does ooze style, character, charm and a soul that many of the hip new restaurants lack.

The meal was excellent. Beautiful pork belly to start. It was succulent with beautiful crispy crackling. It was delish and a welcome change to the overly fatty pork belly served these days.

My wife ordered the Lamb shank and I the steak. Again presentation was spot on with the meals arriving on warmed plates! It's the little touches like this that I love and often missing at other establishments these days. The lamb fell off the bone and my steak was cooked to perfection. It was cooked and prepared by a chef and kitchen staff that certainly know what they're doing. All the dishes served were excellent and utterly delish.

Thank you Shannon for looking after us all night. You never missed a thing. Our water glasses were always topped up and you provided an excellent level of service that I've not received while dining out for some time.

We enjoyed our night so much that we'll certainly look at staying at the Royal on the Park should we find ourselves in Brisbane again.

Thank you...